According to similar reports in the French media, French president Francois Hollande and prime minister Laurent Fabius will not come to Putin's "olympics" in Sochi. Fabius told about that (see the video) on Sunday's TV program Grand rendez-vous on Europe 1.
Fabius said literally the following:
"There are no plans to attend. But at the same time I wish all success to these games, but top French officials have no plans to be there. (Ce n'est pas prévu d'y aller. Je souhaite beaucoup de succès à ces Jeux, mais il n'est pas prévu que les plus grandes autorités françaises s'y rendent)".
Fabius did not explain the reasons for boycott because of the diplomatic considerations. The French newspapers did it for him, including the French edition of the British Huffington Post:
"Who could possibly go to the opening ceremony of Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in Russia (in fact Sochi is in the Caucasus Emirate, and not in Russia - KC)? Mass arrests of Caucasian activists, ban on all demonstrations, corruption are the back side of the upcoming Winter Games which the only side visible at the moment".
It is to be noted that reference to arrests of Caucasian activists came from a report on Saturday in Le Matin, referring to an AFP story on the arrest of eight Circassian activists in the night from Friday to Saturday, and the reference to corruption is related to evidence by a Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. AFP explains:
"The Circassians were detained in Nalchik, their homes were searched, and during the same night they were transferred to Krasnodar. The police told the Circassians that in one of their houses, an extremist had been hiding. This was reported to AFP by one of the detainees, Ibrahim Vaginov, who was waiting to be called for questioning.
"We believe that this is due to the Olympic Games. Such methods are being used to provide security. All detainees criticized in the past holding of the Olympic Games, but they were never engaged in extremist or separatist activities, and they do not have any relation to it.
First, huge sums of money had been stolen. Secondly, the heritage of our ancestors had been destroyed. Third, they had turned this region into the site of ecological disaster", indignant Mr Vaginov said", reports AFP.
Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2013/12/15/18672.shtml
